1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to binoculars provided with a digital camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, digital-camera-provided binoculars into which the functions of a digital camera and binoculars are integrated, are known. For the digital-camera-provided binoculars, an image similar to that observed trough a pair of ocular lens systems can be displayed on an LCD monitor and stored in a recording medium as a digital image.
On the other hand, some digital cameras are provided with a microphone for recording sound for a digital image captured by and stored in the camera. Recording may be carried out immediately after capturing the image, before a predetermined time has elapsed, or some time after the image capturing operation, by selecting an image and post recording. The immediate recording may be carried out to produce a feeling of presence at the location where the image was captured, by recording the surrounding sound, or to record voice that describes the situation, as a memorandum. Further, the post recording may be carried out by indicating an image on the display monitor and recording certain suitable sound data. However, a conventional digital camera is a device for capturing images, so that voice or sound recording operations while looking into a viewfinder is not presumed. Therefore, the microphone of the conventional digital camera is disposed on the front side (lens provided side) of the camera body, beside the finder, or on the top surface of the camera body, which is not suitable for recording the voice of a user when the user is looking into the viewfinder.
On the other hand, telescopic observation through the binoculars is the main use for the digital-camera-provided binoculars, so that an image capturing operation is generally carried out while observing objects through the binoculars.